I always see my diplomatic relations ping-ponging due to "finds you contemptable due to your small navy". The thing is, my navy is small; because I employ small fleets in intelligent ways. I'm currently in a three-way war and winning, how is my military strength "contemptible" when I'm bombarding three planets with planetary artillery and smashing up craver ships ever turn?



The AI's diplomacy engine puts what seems to be an inordinate amount of emphasis on your place in the universal military rankings without considering things like your capacity to quick-build new fleets (manufacturing core) or your current/past performance in wars. Just because the AI thinks its a great idea to spend all of its money on naval upkeep while I just use two large fleets to blockade the main entrances to my empire's space doesn't mean they should consider me as weak. Currently I have destroyed 10+ horatio navies, taken two planets and am invading their capitol system, and yet because I'm doing this with small efficient fleets they seem to still believe I am on the wrong side of the conflict to be asking for peace...

The AI is just extremely bad at building ships, so even when they have tons of MP its pretty easy to shoot holes through them.

True and true. The AI will propably be changed and shaped over the summer.